


accepting truth isn’t always that easy.

by Sagamohr



Category: Machine Gun Kelly (Musician)
Genre: (written in a flashback), Abandonment Issues, Alternative Universe - Half-Siblings, Drug Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22406947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagamohr/pseuds/Sagamohr
Summary: Colson Baker reflects on the first time he ever met his wild European half-brother, Dominic.
Relationships: Colson Baker | Machine Gun Kelly & Yungblud | Dominic Harrison
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	accepting truth isn’t always that easy.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AngelsAvengeMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelsAvengeMe/gifts).



> Something I've been sitting on since before Christmas. This fic was the reason I made my AO3 account.
> 
> To my best friend- did you think I forgot? :)

As Dominic danced and sung on stage with his latest hit, Machine Gun Kelly - or just Colson to those who he cared about - watched with a warm grin on his face, and a bold sense of pride swelling in his chest. He leaned against a broken speaker, arms crossed loosely over his chest with a can of beer in one hand, his foot tapping along to the beat of the song.

* * *

He could remember when the dark-haired boy had stumbled into the house he and his aunt shared, and how he had shaken his very fragile life. 

Freshly, barely twenty years old with a squalling two-year-old daughter in his arms, he was losing his temper with his aunt. Looking back at it now, he knew that she had only wanted what was best for him, and he had been such a bullheaded kid. He deserved the guilt he still shouldered today about the way he had treated the only family that gave him a place to stay when Cassie was thrust into his arms. Regardless, he hadn’t been expecting guests at all, when Dominic opened the door and walked inside as if he already owned the place. The screaming continued from the two-year-old, but Colson looked from his aunt to the new face in the house, immediately feeling his hackles raise.

Shifting Cassie up on his hip, he jerked his chin at the wild child standing in his doorway. “Who the _fuck_ is this idiot now?” Colson growled at his aunt, not bothering to ask the kid himself, tightening his hold on his screaming daughter. He didn’t have the time to sort this shit out, not when he could barely hear himself think. Cassie wasn’t getting the attention she was used to getting, and he was grateful she had yet to start pulling his hair as she did to his aunt.

Dominic, clearly taken aback by the hostile tone, sent the taller male a grin. “Name’s Dominic, mate. Is she yours?” He motioned to the toddler, who’s frantic screaming calmed down only a tone.

Colson was taken aback by the incredibly heavy accent. This was fucking _Ohio_ , where the hell had this clown crawled out from? London? Dominic took a step into the house, towards him and his still crying daughter, and he turned his shoulder to the brown-haired male, keeping Cassie shielded from him, from Dominic. “Yeah, _mate_.” He hissed in return. “Who the fuck is he?” He returned hostile attention to his aunt, who rose to her feet, coming to his other side to reach for the toddler. He wordlessly passed the wailing two-year-old over, feeling faintly defeated by his own kid.

His aunt wasted no time coaxing Cassie down from her screaming fit. “You heard him. He’s Dominic.” She answered with half a tsk in her voice, eyes locked on her squalling great-niece.

Colson rolled his eyes, defensive and cold. “Yeah I fuckin’ heard him, but I don’t _know any fuckin’ Dominic’s_!”

His aunt held Cassie to her side as if she was protecting her from her own father. “That’s your brother.”

Not the first time in his life, Colson felt his world tremble. His _brother_?

Then everything began to click into place. He could vaguely remember the time his father returned from a business trip, complaining of the long flight and the longer ride home. Colson had been what, all of seven at the time? Eight at most? Shortly after that, his father moved full time to London. He remembered the state his mother had been in, remembered how horrible it had been. So like any eight year old, Colson moved between houses, often couch surfing between his aunt’s place and his friends, but none of that actually mattered right this second. This was the Dominic that he had wanted to wrap his hands around. This was the Dominic that had sent letters, goddamn _letters_ to his aunt’s house once Colson moved there full time.

“You.” His voice was hollow, sad even. 

Dominic, fourteen years old, bit his bottom lip. “Me?” He squeaked, pointing to himself.

“You. _You_ came into my goddamn life at the fuckin’ goddamn _wrong_ time!” Colson roared, nearly leaping over the couch to storm up to him, grabbing the teenager by the shirt and thrusting him against the wall. He heard his aunt yelp in the kitchen, but he didn’t care. He didn’t give a single flying fuck about who he happened to upset, because he was hurt. He was the one who had his life ruined by this stupid twit. “Who the fuck do you think you are, huh? Rollin’ in here like you’ve lived here your whole life, huh? _Answer me!_ ” Colson yelled, spittle hitting Dominic in the cheek. The young teen wiggled in his older half brother’s grasp, flailing only slightly when the taller, stronger male dropped him.

“Are you trying to kill me?!” Dominic yelled back, hot wire temper flaring at being manhandled so easily. “Is this the kinda impression you want to leave on your daughter?”

“Don’t you fuckin’ talk about my daughter like you know her!” Colson yelled over him, nearly seeing red. Cassie was the only thing really cementing him to this world, the only thing really holding him down against the constant struggles he faced, the struggles he brought to himself with the people he hung out with. “You keep her _fuckin_ ’ name outta your mouth-” He faltered when he realized he didn’t hear his daughter screaming as she had been. His anger quickly fizzled. He had been trying for a better part of two hours of hushed, hissed arguing with his aunt to get Cassie to sleep.

His heart broke. She slept soundly when her father yelled.

Colson pushed away from Dominic, running a hand through his short sandy blond hair. “Fuck.” He hissed, turning to punch the soft part of the back of the couch. Anger - no longer directed at the wayward affair child, but at himself - flared up hotter and harder than it had ever before. “Do you hear that? You fuckin’ hear that?” He asked, whipping around to stare at Dominic, vision blurry with heat and anger. “My daughter’s asleep.”

There was a moment of confusion, spreading thinly across Dominic’s face. “Ain’t that a good thing though? I don’t-”

“Of _course_ you fuckin’ don’t understand! You’re a fuckin’ child-” Colson spat.

“I turned fourteen two months ago, mate, I’m no kid!”

“I think you both need to go outside,” Came the rather calm tone of his aunt. “Cassie’s sleeping.” She paused, looking down at the sleeping girl in her arms before looking back at her two nephews. “Colson you know better than anyone that she’ll wake up if you keep arguing with Dominic.” For a split second he was fuming again, so bitterly pissed off that she just so casually used his name like she knew him. The rage fizzled again. The blonde-haired male knew better than to fight back against his aunt, as much as he wanted to. He wanted to lash out and hurt and make someone else feel this goddamn ice-cold rage that was burning inside of him. So, he threw the front door open and stomped outside, shoeless.

Dominic bounced out after him, closing the front door with a snap. “Look, Colson-” He stopped as the blonde turned to face him as if saying his name was a trigger. “I’m not goin’ anywhere.” He said firmly, half-smile dropping, the Yorkshire born and raised boy not about to let some American push him around anymore. “I was invited to stay here, and I can’t go home.” His voice cracked, the truth of the situation beginning to come out. “I _want to_ stay here, and I _ain’t_ leaving, and if you don’t like that, then you can go fuck yourself.” His eyes shone brightly with tears.

“I don’t like it,” Snarled Colson, even though his anger was doused quickly at the sight of the young kid’s tears. Abandonment issues were running high in him too, his mother a personal black mark on his soul. “You’re a new face in my house, a new face around my daughter, I don’t know who the _fuck you think you are_ -”

“I’m your brother!” Dominic yelled.

“No you aren’t! I don’t fuckin’ know you, kid! I barely know my own daughter and she’s all _mine_.” Colson yelled back, stepping into Dominic’s space again. “Right now you’re a goddamn stranger livin’ in a house you don’t belong in.”

“You’re my brother,” Dominic said again, blue eyes welled up with tears. “You’re my half brother, and I can’t fuckin’ change that, so get fuckin’ used to it!” He pressed his hands flat against the expanse of Colson’s chest and shoved him out, making the taller blond stagger back a few feet. “You can’t change that your dad dicked my mum down and she popped me out!” He continued to shout. A neighbour across the street poked their head out. “You can’t change that your - our - aunt invited me, that I got kicked out when she did, that no one fuckin’ wants me any more than you do!”

Colson kept his distance while Dominic ranted. He didn’t know the whole story. He didn’t know his aunt had invited him. Of course he didn’t. He had been so busy with Cassie and his boys that he had been - for lack of a better term - neglecting his relationship with his aunt. But that didn’t really matter now, did it? He wasn’t about to be cowed by a thirteen-year-old, though. He wasn’t about to feel bad for something he had no control over, as so plainly stated. What Colson did have control over, was his emotions and how he could limit any interactions between him and Dominic for as long as he lived there.

He shook his head, rolled his shoulder, and patted his pockets down for a blunt. Cigarettes were on the counter, so was his lighter. “Sorry you got a bad roll in life, but that isn’t my fault,” Colson said, half paying attention as his fingers found a pre-rolled joint in his back left pocket. As far as he was concerned, the British brat was already in, if he knew his aunt as well as he thought he did. “You can cry if you want to, but don’t bring that shit inside. You’ll have her all over you without a thought.” Colson jerked his chin up at the door, the joint between his fingers, his free hand still patting, looking for a lighter. 

“You don’t fuckin’ wanna live here, kid. I’m already too much on my aunt with my daughter, now you?” Colson shot at him, narrowing his eyes slightly. 

“I don’t have a choice,” Dominic said softly, wiping his nose against his sleeve, before he dug his clean hand into a pocket, pulling a white and blue lighter out. “Nicked it from the food mart up the block.” He said sheepishly, offering the lighter up in his palm.

Was this a peace offering?

Colson, with the joint hanging out of his mouth, without a light to hold onto, gave the lighter a look then flicked his gaze up to the thirteen-year-old who had ‘nicked’ it from the corner store. Jesus Christ, it was totally a fucking peace offering. “Don’t bring that shit into my aunt’s house, got it?” He muttered, snatching it from Dom’s hand and lighting up. “I’m sure she’ll read the riot act to you, but trust me. She doesn’t take stealin’ lightly.”

“You’re letting me stay?”

“I’m not lettin’ you stay, I’m _tellin_ ’ you she won’t let you leave now.” Colson corrected him.

Dominic’s once sad eyes lit up, his entire aura shifting. “Does this mean you’ll show me where I’ll be staying then? Like, my bedroom?”

Colson laughed, knowing he and Cassie were already in the cramped spare bedroom. “You’ll be lucky if you get the couch.” He said, taking a deep inhale. Already the weed was working, smoothing everything out, making everything a little less sharp, a little less deadly in his mouth.

As if a switch had been hit, the Yorkshire male grinned widely. “Don’t matter to me!” Dominic said, heading to the door. “Couch, counter, floor- I’ll take it.” He stepped up onto the small porch, reaching for the door. He hesitated, brushing his hair back from his face as he looked down at the smoking Colson, biting his lower lip. 

“You think she’ll keep me around for a long time?”

The question squeezed around Colson’s heart like a vice, a question he knew too well. “I don’t think she’ll let you leave.” He repeated as smoothly as he could, but the weed felt sticky in his throat and lungs. “Go inside, I just gotta do some shit.”

“Okay.” He opened the door, and then looked back at the taller blond. “See you at supper?”

“Sure.” Colson answered with a grunt, but he smirked as he shoved his hand down into his pockets and headed for the sidewalk. He wasn’t going far, just to the end of the street and back.

* * *

“Kelly you’re on!” A stage assistant shouted over the noise, signalling for Colson. 

Pushing off of the speaker, he reached for the microphone he was being handed, trading it for the beer in his hand. Mouthing a ‘thank you’, he gave the mic a gentle tap and smiled at the echo. The music was fading, and Dominic was talking to the crowd, amping them up for the upcoming song. He looked over at his half brother for a moment, eyes bright and wild like they had been all those years ago. Colson wasn’t sure what he said that got the crowd screaming, but it didn’t matter. He was going in hot, with the microphone at his mouth, hand in the air.

“Watch me, take a good thing and fuck it all up in one night...”


End file.
